Excavator



Feb. 23 1926. "1,574,247

' A. M. HOOD .EXCAVATOR- v Filed Dec. 27, 1925 :5 She ets Sheet 1 INVENTOR Feb. 23 1926. 1,574,247

- v v A. M. HOOD EXCAVATOR Filed Dec. 27, 1925 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 I I -"u If III I I 1 v v INVENTOR WWW.

Feb. 23 ,192

1,574,247 A. M. HOOD EXCAVATOR Filed Dec. 27, 1925 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR MIA/W Feb, 23, 19.26.

Patented earner lorries.

na rnnnm. noon, or-innmnaronrs, Iranians.

EXOAVATGR.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ARTHUR M. Hope, a (JltJZBH-Oftllfi United States, residing at in dianapolis, in the county of Marion and mentary section on line k-l of Fig 1.; Fig.

a front elevation of the carriage and immediately associated parts, and Fig. (5 a side elevation of another embodiment of my invention. v

In the drawings 10 indicates-a track cable upon which the apparatus is most conven .iently mounted and operated, said track eat-- his being generally arranged with its lower end attached to a dead man and its upper end attached to a suitable block and tackle by which the track cablemay be conveniently slackened-and tautened, thisconstruction being common and well-known in the art.

Movably mounted upon and along the track, cable 1s a carrlage 11 from which 1s suspench 1 ed, by means of the suspension member 12, a forwardly unbalanced scraper bucket 13.

Located in the lower forward portion of carriage 11 is a double idler 1 composed of two slightly spaced portions each having a chain supporting peripheral portion 14:, the two parts being soaii'ranged that the lifting chain 15 may ride thereon, without entering the space 16' between the two portions o'f idler i l, to normally support the forwardly unbalanced weight of buck- As a part of chain 15 I provide along link 17 the thickness of whichis such as to permit its entry into the soace 16, the points of attachment 17 and 17" between the upper and lower portions of chain 15, respectively, and link 17, being so proportioned that, when the parts are drawn to the position shown in Fig. 1, the point of attaching gravity dumping action; Fig. 4 a frag- Application filed December 27,1923. Serial No. 682,920,

ment 17 will be attheperiphery 14, line l'Zwill lie WVltlllll SDilCG 16,;arid the point of attachment 1-7? effectively nearer the axis of idler 14% than is the point 01": attachment '17. ,Preferably these proportions are such that the point 17 will be in advance of the 2 verticalplane of the axis of idler l4: and the point. of attachment 1'7 will be either di-1 rectly beneath or slightly in advance thereof in which latter case the-unbalanced weight of the bucket and its load willhave 1 no tendency to move the link 17 rearwardly.

. The upper end of link 17,,when in the position shown in Fig. 1, lies in the path of movement of the. lowerend of a lever 18 pivoted at 19 011 carriage 11, the upper end of this lever lying betweena pair of lingers-20 20 on a latch bar 21, having a pin and slot connection .22 with carriage 11. The latch bar 21 is projected somewhat in advance or" carriage 11 and at its forward,

end is so formed as to have a latching cooperation with a block, or other catch, 23,

point.

' In order to automatically release latch 21 from block 28, any one of a number of corn structions may be adopted. For instance,

the rear end of latch 21 may'sloe provided with, an ar1n25 extended rearwardlybeyond the pivotal connection 22,:and to this, extension may be attached a chain 26,-the lower end of which is attached to bucket '13, the length of the chain 26 being suchthat when the'bucket has been allowed toswing,

under the action of gravity,,so as to dump secured to the cable at the desired dumping its load, chain 26 will-be taut, and latch 21 i automatically released from block 23 Instead of extension 25 and chain 26, block 23 may be provided with a bell crank lever 36 operated by a pull line 3l 'extending from the operating station, or latch 21 may be provided with a crossbar 32 whiclrby a forward movement of the carriage may be brought into engagement with the tapered rear end of block 23. I

.Movement of carriage 11 alongthe track cable is controlled by a dragline 8.5 which at 36'is bifurcated and extended to the forward end of the bucket, and a, movement of carriage 11 along the trackcable, is (30111 trolled by a dragline f Tlie litt line 15 is connected to the drag line, conveniently at bifurcation 36, the

parts being so proportioned th at, when a transporting forward pull is. exerted upon the dragline 35, the parts will be drawn to the position shown infull lines where the] dropped into latching engagement therewith. Upon a release of drag upon the dragline, the upper forward end of chain 15 will be slackened'and the dragline, relative to the bucket, will also be slackened.

Thereupon, the carriage 11 will more by gravity rearwardly on the track cable and,-

by reason of the pin and slot connection there will be a slight relative movement longitudinally of the carriage between the I j latch bar and the carria e so that lever 18 will be swung so as to kick the link 17 rearwardly and thus carry the point of attachment 17 back to a point where the unbalanced weight of the bucket and its load may become effectiveto draw the chain 15 rearW'ardly and downwardly, and thus permit the bucket, by reason of its forwardly unbalanced weight, to swing its forward end downwardly and thus dump its load.

' If chain 26 is utilized, the latch 21 will be automatically withdrawn from block 23 at the end of the downward swing of the bucket and the carriage will thus be free to slide downwardly along the track cable.

The track cable will then be slackene'd so as to permit the bucket'to descend to the point of excavation, whereupon a forward pull on the dragline will draw the bucket foi wardly and at the same time will draw link 17 into the position shown in Fig. 1. The bucket being filled, the track cable is tautened and the parts drawn into the position shown in Fig. 1,.and the operation repeated.

If instead of the chain 26, the bell crank 30 is used, the operator will, when the load has been dumped, pull upon cable 31 to cause a release of the latch bar 21, and the further operation .will be as described above. 1 If, instead of the chain 26, or bell crank 30, the cross bar 32 is used, the operator will, after a load has been dumped, exert a forward pull upon the dragline, so as to return bucket and link 17 to the position shown in Fig. 1 and will continue this for-' ward pull until crossbar 32 engages block 23 whereupon: by a sudden release of pull upon the dragline, the carriage will move backwardly before the latch can drop in front of block 23 and the carriage and its bucket will descend to the excavating position.

If link 17 is formed in the preferred manner described above, the bucket will remain in its upper position as the carriage descends, but in any event, a forward pull upon the dragline, from the excavating point, serves to restore link 17 to its position between the idlers 14.-

- The advantage of line 17 and its cooperation with idler lt resides in the fact that if the chain 15 should be passed over an ordinary idler the bucket could. only be maintainedin load-carrying position by a substantially uniform maintenance of forward pull upon the dragline, and practically this is not possible, because of variations of speed of the carriage and because of vertical vibrations in the slackline track cable, whereas the co-operation of link 17 with the special idler 14 is such that the effect of the forwardly unbalanced load on chain 15 is either materially reduced, or, preferably, entirely eliminated.

In Fig. 6 the meansfor increasing the bucketdumping effectiveness of the forwardly unbalanced bucket weight is operated by a forward inertia movement of the carriage on its track following a discontinuance of pull on the dragline.

In this form I provide a plunger 40 slidably mounted on carriage 11 and arranged to bump into stop block a1 and be thus driven against link 17 so as to kick it rearwardly. This specific construction forms the subject matter of a companion application.

I claim as my invention:

- 1. An excavator of the type described, comprising a carriage, a forwardly unbalanced scraper bucket pivotally supported on said carriage, a dragline connected to the forward end of the bucket, a lifting line connected to the forward end. of the bucket and passed over a support on the carriage to the dragline, means for decreasing the bucket-dumping effectiveness of the forwardly unbalanced weight of the bucket, a latch carried by the carriage and adapted to at times limit reverse movement of the carriage, and 11163118 operated by relative longitudinal movement between the carriage andlatch for increasing the bucket-dun'iping effectiveness of the forwardly unbalanced weight of the bucket,

2. An excavator of the type described,

comprising a carriage, a forwardly unbalanced scraper bucket pivotally supported on said carriage, a dragline connected to the forward end of the bucket, a lifting line connected to the forward end of the bucket and passed over a support on the carriage to the dragline, means for decreasing the bucketdumping effectiveness of the forwardly unbalanced weight of the bucket, a latch carried by the carriage and adapted to at times limit reverse -movement of the carriage,

means operated by relative longittulinal movement between the carriage and late'hffor of the bucket and passed over a support on the carriage to the dragline, means for decreasing the bucket-dumpingeffectiveness of the forwardly unbalanced weight of the bucket, and means movably mounted on the carriage and adapted to co-operate, with a carriage-support for increasing the bucket-dumping effectiveness of the forwardly unbalanced weight of the bucket. l. An excavator of the type described comprising a carriage, a forwardly unbalanced scraper bucket, pivotally supported on said carriage, a dragline connected to the forward endof 'said bucket, a lifting-line connected to said dragline' and extended back over asupport on the carriage and thence downwardly to the'forward end of the bucket, the said lifting line and its carriage-support being of such character that, when the lifting line has lifted the bucket to load-carrying position, the effectiveness of the unbalanced weight of the bucket tending to cause rearward movement of the l fting line is less than 1t is 111st before the bucket reaches load-carrying position, a latch carried by the carriage and adapted to at times limit reverse movement of the carriage, and means operated by relative longitudinal movement between the carriage and latch for increasing bucketdumping effectivenessof the forwardly unbalancedweight of the bucket.

5. An excavator of the type described comp ising, a carriage, a forwardly unbalanced scraper bucket pivotally supported on said carriage, a dragline connected to the forward end of said bucket, a lifting line connected to said dragline and extended back over a support on the carriage and thence downwardly to the forward end of the bucket, the said lifting'line and its carriage-support being of such character that, when the lifting line hasilifted the bucket to load-carrying position, the effectiveness of the unbalanced weight of the bucket tending to cause rearward movement of the lifting line is less than it is just before the bucket reaches load-carrying position, a latch carried by the carriage and adapted to at times limit reverse movement of'the carriage, means operated byrelativelongitudinal movementbetween the carriage and latch for increasing bucket-dumping ef tive to its cari iage support.

drawing the latch from carriage-restraining position. i I

64A11 e'kcavatorof the type described comprising, 'a carriage; a forwardly un.. balanced scraperbucket pivotally supported on said carriagefa dragline connected to the forward end of'said bucket, a lifting line connected to said dragline and eXtendfectiveuess. "or the forwardly "unbalanced weight of the bucket,-and means for with ed back over a support on the carriage and thence downwardly to the forward end of the bucket, the said lifting line and its carriage-support.being of such character that, whenthe lifting line has lifted the bucket to load-carrying position, the effectiveness of the unbalanced weight of the bucket tending to cause rearward movement of the lifting line is less than it is just before the bucket reaches load-carrying position, and means movably mounted on the carriage and adapted. to, cooperate with a carriage-support for increasing the bucketdumping effectiveness of'the forwardly unbalanced weight of thebucket.

7. An excavator of the type described comprising, a carriage, a forwardly unbalanced scraper bucket pivotally supported on said carriage, a dragline connected to the forward .end of the bucket, a lifting chain connected to the d'ragline and extended back over a support on the carriage and thence downwardly'to the forward end of the bucket, said chain comprising a link 17 and the support formed to permit the link to move to a position closer to the axis of the support than is permitted the adjacent advance portion of the chain, .and means other than the bucket for positively shifting said link: rearwardly relative to itscarriage support.

8. An excavator of the type described comprising, a carriage, a forwardly 'unbalanced scraper bucket pivotally supported on said carriage, a draglineconnected to the forward end of the bucket, a lifting chain connected to the dragline and extended back over a support on the carriage andithence downwardly to the forward end of the bucket, said cha n comprising a link 17 and the support formed to permit the link to move to a position closer to the axis of the supportthan ispermitted the adjacent advance portion of the chain, and means other thanthe bucket and controlled by movement of the carriage on its support, for shifting said link rearwardly rela 9. An excavator of. the type balanced scraper bucket pivotally supporteddescribed v on said carriage, a dragline connected to the I forward end of the bucket, a lifting chain connected to the dragline and extended back over a support on the carriage and thence downwardly to the forward end of,

thebucket, said chain comprising a link 17 and the support, formed to permit the link to move to a position closer to the axis of the support than is permitted the adjacent advance portion of the chain, a latch carried by the carriage and adapted to at times limit rearward movement Ofthelcarriage,

and means acting "on the link 17 and con- ARTHUR M. HOOD. 

